Money Maker is a Windows program that helps you analyze various investments and chart their performance. With a little practice using this program, you will be able to keep track of your stocks, bonds, mutual funds, and other securities.

Installation:  Quick and easy through the Windows Program Manager (File/Run), with no problems encountered. The installation process creates a "Money Maker" icon in Program Manager. Clicking on this icon gives you choices for the three modules of the product (Analyzer, Portfolio, and Chart), plus an additional icon for "CompuServe Setup". Money Maker comes on a single 3.5" high density diskette (a mail-in coupon for a 5.25" disk is included).

Documentation:  Money Maker comes with a "User's Guide" (138 pages) that describes the tools included in the program and provides general information on investments. The manual is generally well-written and contains plenty of information, including a glossary of investment terminology. Also included is a CompuServe brochure offering introductory service (one month free basic service plus a $15 usage credit).

The Product:  Money Maker is an integrated product consisting of three primary modules: Analyzer, Portfolio, and Chart. The Analyzer module allows for both basic and advanced analysis of Stocks, Options, Advanced Options, Mutual Funds, Bonds, Futures, Real Estate Analysis, and Goal Planning. The primary options for stock analysis are price forecasting; constant growth value, dividend, return rate, and growth rate; and non-constant growth model. Be forewarned, price forecasting requires you to input basic information concerning the stock in question (i.e., dividend payout ratio, price to earnings ratio, current revenues, and expected growth rates) which may be found in various stockholder resource reports. Don't expect to just pick up a recent copy of the"Wall Street Journal" and be able to fully use this program! Option analysis allows for long call, long put, short call, short put, long straddle, and short straddle. Advanced Option analysis allows for various calls and puts with hedges. Mutual Fund analysis allows calculation of yields and adjusted net asset values (NAV). Bond analysis provides yield to maturity, yield to call, realized yield, and duration. Futures analysis helps you with long speculation, short speculation, and long and short hedges. The Real Estate Analysis section contains common financial tools needed to make informed decisions regarding commercial and residential real estate properties (points discount, payment amount, interest rate, loan amount, number of payments, qualification, and a feasibility model). Goal Planning provides you with tools for education and retirement planning. The Portfolio module is a bookkeeping tool for tracking personal investments. There are several options for reporting, including tax report (three types) and portfolio report (six types). Charts may be generated for value by type, percent value by type, and three varieties of price history. The many options let you analyze multiple "what-if" scenarios. The Modem Menu in the Portfolio module allows you to download price updates for the whole portfolio and price history of a selected security via CompuServe; following selection of information, data is downloaded automatically. The Windows interface is familiar and fairly easy to follow. In spite of this, I have to admit to some difficulty in figuring out how to do what I wanted to do. For example, stock splits are easy to enter through the stock manager; however, splits for mutual funds are not an option (at least I couldn't find it). Nevertheless, I was able to input information concerning the results of the split manually. Although this is not a major problem, it was frustrating nevertheless. The subtitle on the box states "Securities Analysis & Portfolio Management Software for Professional and Novice Investors". Being a novice investor, I found Money Maker somewhat confusing to use and believe that a decent spreadsheet would be quite adequate for my investment tracking and analysis needs. Although a sample data set is included in the Portfolio module and on-line help is available, the lack of a tutorial made learning this product a challenge. As a help for beginners, Q-West should consider adding a tutorial for future versions of Money Maker. For questions, Q-West has a Technical Support Line (sorry, it's not a 1-800 number).

Bottom Line:  If you're fairly knowledgeable about investing, you might want to take a look at Money Maker. The numerous options make this a powerful analysis tool. If you only have a casual interest or are just getting started in investment analysis, expect a steep learning curve in trying to use this product.

System Tested On:  IBM compatible PC (Gateway 2000) with a 80486-DX2 at 66 Mhz; MS DOS 6.2 & Windows for Workgroups 3.11; 8 Mb of RAM & 420 Mb hard drive; mouse

Minimum System:  IBM or 100% compatible PC with MS Windows 3.1 or later; Hercules, EGA, VGA or better graphics card; 1 Mb RAM and a hard drive; mouse (recommended); modem (recommended).

Q-West Associates, 13223 Black Mountain Rd., #1-410, San Diego, CA 92129  Tel: (619) 484-6648  Fax: (619) 484-8606